Forget your ego: Don’t promote yourself, promote your content

Unless you’re Kim Kardashian, no one wants to hear about the mundanities of your life. Promote your great YouTube video, not the argument you had with the cameraman. Talk up what’s great about what you created, not about how great you are for creating it. Got it? Good, now step on your ego again and remember it’s about the content, not you![dt_sc_hr_invisible_small]

[dt_sc_blockquote type=”type4″ align=”left”]No, don’t get ready for the big yawn of “be sure to RT other and use hashtags” type of ‘advice.’ We’re going to look at 10 powerful next level audience growth hacks that will naturally increase your follower numbers, likes, shares, retweets, subscribers, and whatever other social signal you want to increase.[/dt_sc_blockquote]

When you can be an egomaniac: Put your links everywhere

Put social sharing buttons on your blog posts, your website, your blogs, on product pages and everywhere else. Web users are not only use to seeing these now, but they expect them to be there to make it easier for them to share your content.

This is also related to your @usernames, YouTube channels names, and other important social profile names. This will help breed familiarity with your usernames, making it so people don’t have to guess what your Twitter handle, YouTube channel name, or any other social profile is called.

Be everyone’s favorite account with platform exclusive contests

Remember the old days when you’d put coupons in magazines and newspapers and all it would do is get you a few more customers and give people more incentive to buy the newspaper or magazine? Well social media gives you the chance to capture those new followers in your own social profiles. Rather than the magazine or newspaper getting more buys, you get more fans!

Take the time to mention that the content or promotion you’re running is exclusive to the platform, and people will gladly share it. This value added marketing tactic is a tested concept that has helped many businesses grow through their promotions. Here’s an easy to understand example:

Social Proof: Why should anyone believe you?

Social proof is a concept that espouses numbers and little else. When people first come across your social profile they’re going to see how many followers, subscribers and likes you have. If your numbers are low they’re not going to believe that you’re a trustworthy voice in your industry. This is why Twitter follower and retweet services get business – they boost your social proof right away while you continue to do the hard work.

Build up walls that your users breakdown

Flock to Unlock is a popular new method that smart social profiles are using to get their fans to do certain things. But this doesn’t have to be limited to just Twitter. You can tell your fans that they’ll get to watch a certain video once you get to a certain number of subscribers. You can challenge your fans to share a photo a certain number of times on Instagram to unlock a new product image that they’re excited about.

In summary: Build up a wall, and challenge your fans to knock it down with shares, likes, subscriptions, and on and on.

This just in: Do #newsjacks correctly

A newsjack is when you find a news story and jump in with your 2 cents. Doing a newsjack that will actually increase your following happens when you come across a new story that actually has some sort of relevance to you or your industry. Even better, join in on a newsjack when you’re commenting on a story that is within your established area of expertise – you may go viral if you have something truly relevant to say.

@samueljscott summarizes it best in this tweet:

If something bad happens and your first thought is “How can we newsjack this?”, you’re doing it wrong.

Don’t be content with a @mention, ask for feedback

If you already have found a user who is talking about your product, ask them for feedback if they’re not already giving you some. “I bought a new widget yesterday” is a common throw away comment on any social media platform. Ask them what they thought about your widget to build your social content and online reviews.

A tool like Hootsuite can help you find mentions of your products that don’t directly reference your quotes. Read up on setting up searches that uncover your products and you’ll find all new ways to interact with people who are talking about your products.

In good times, and in bad: Respond to praise and criticism immediately

It’s easy to respond to praise right away – “Thanks for the kind words @niceguy!” Done. But responding to criticism right away is how your potential fans will truly judge you. Give people a response right away and they’ll see that you’re serious about your social media account – not just waiting around for random people to stroke your ego.

Have I made it clear yet that your social media accounts aren’t about your ego?

Spread the love: Mention other users on the platform

Everyone loves a shoutout:

Give people a shoutout in your YouTube videos

Use a @mention on Twitter

Share to the Facebook walls of those you’re mentioning

Join in on Instagram hashtags of those you’re talking about

Not only will this increase your chances of having them mention you back, but it is also an easy way to get your content into the eyes of their followers.

Crossovers

Promoting your latest video through your Twitter account, talking about your newest blog post on Facebook, and snapping a picture of your latest promotion for Instagram are all easy steps you can take to start building a connection between all of your accounts.

Before you start doing this, be sure that your social profiles all have a similar feel and look to them. Use common branding – logos and colors – for all of your profiles so that people know immediately that you’re sending them to another page of yours.

Which formats do salespeople think are most effective for sales coaching? Who do they think should lead training sessions? What coaching behaviors do they believe lead to success?

To find out, Richardson surveyed 266 salespeople and coaches who work in a wide range of industries, including CPG (17% of respondents), finance (12%), business services/consulting (11%), technology (9%), and healthcare (9%).

Some 50% of respondents say the sales training they receive from their company is somewhat effective.

Just 24% say the training is very effective, 12% are unsure, 11% say it is somewhat ineffective, and 3% say it is very ineffective.

Sales programs rated as highly effective by company employees are more likely to be actively monitored by managers, include gamification elements (badges, prizes, etc.), and have progressive levels.

Below, additional key findings from the report.

Formats/Technologies

Respondents say the best sales training formats/technologies are webinars (55% rate as effective) and simulations (52%).

Sales Coach Background

Salespeople say the best coaches are top-performing sales reps (26% say are most effective) and sales managers/leaders (24%).

Elon Musk recently announced the launch of the new Tesla Model 3. In the following 24 hours, 235,000 people placed a deposit of $1000 – $1400 for a car that will sell for $35,000.

Although the base model will be $35,000, Elon Musk expects the average sale price to be $42,000. Some analysts believe the average sale price will be above $45,000 on par with a BMW 3 series.

In theory, this is one of the biggest product launch events in history with over $250,000,000 in deposits placed for $10Billion worth of products in just under 48 hours.

Here are 5 things that Tesla got right in order to make this a reality:

Signalling intentions to their market.

The very first blog that appears on the Tesla website is Elon Musk sharing his product strategy. He announced from day one that they would start with an elite sports car, followed by a luxury sedan and SUV and then they would launch a mass market vehicle.

At every product launch he reiterated that strategy and let the media know his intentions to create the Model 3. At the retail stores, the sales team informed people that the Model S was a luxury car but an affordable electric car was on it’s way. In the months leading up to the launch, Elon Musk intensified his signalling and even started letting people know that they would be able to place a deposit on the car within the next month.

A classic mistake many businesses make is to only talk about something when it’s completely ready for launch. It’s far more powerful to take people on the journey with you from idea to execution.

Start thinking about a big move you could be doing in 2017 and begin warming people up to the idea. This could be a new product, a new city launch or even a new potential market that you will enter. Don’t be afraid to tell people, just be honest that it’s part of your plan.

Using the “7,11,4” strategy.

In the book Oversubscribed, I talk about how people need 7 hours of content, 11 touch points (or interactions) across 4 separate locations in order to feel fully bonded to an idea, product, person or brand.

Tesla has done this perfectly, they are generous in releasing information online via videos, blogs, articles, social media, podcasts and news sites. They even offer information offline via retail stores, live events and during their test-drives.

A key question every business should ask is “Is my business set up so that someone can gorge on content if they want to?”. Imagine a potential buyer who wants to spend an entire day researching your business and products. Can they access a full day of content? If not, you need to get busy creating articles, podcasts, videos and blogs for them to absorb.

Establishing a Key Person of Influence.

The one thing Tesla has over the entire automotive industry is a face to their brand. Very few people can name the CEO of BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, GM or Toyota but you would have to have been living under a rock not to know who Elon Musk is.

The iconic CEO isn’t just hands on, he’s the transparent face of the brand. He tweets, he gives interviews, he speaks at conferences, he launches the products and appears in videos. People haven’t just fallen for the car, they’ve also bought into the founder’s vision.

Your website should feature you as the key person of influence, your leaders should be on social media, there should be videos and blogs from the directors at your company talking about your vision, mission and culture. People are hard-wired to fall in love with faces and voices more than logos, fonts and colours.

Sell first; then build.

Tesla were basically selling thin air. Buyers were putting down deposits on cars that will not be built for more than 18 months. The factory that will build these cars isn’t even finished!

This isn’t some sort of scam; this is how professional companies launch products. It’s normal to buy property developments “off the plan”. It’s normal to pre-book a show that will tour in six months time. It’s normal to pre-purchase a flight or to pre-buy a gadget.

Many start-up businesses take the opposite approach. They spend years building software, production capability and even getting products made, only to discover the market isn’t interested. Tesla will be able to build the exact right number of cars because they are catering to sales that are already agreed which mean no losses.

Consider creating a pre-order product or service such as an annual conference at the end of the year. You can pre-sell this product, service or event all year and then deliver at the agreed time.

Launch the product with an event.

Tesla don’t just make products available on their website or at their retail stores. They host a launch event for their die-hard fans, media representatives and investors. They use this platform to reiterate the vision and strategy of their business and to generate additional buzz.

The launch event is also then released on video so that people have a reason to engage with little risk other than their time.

Even if you run a small event for around 20-30 people to launch a new product, service or strategy, you can capture video, cause some excitement and put a sense of urgency into your team. A launch event gives you something extra to talk about with your market and encourages you and your team to play a bigger game.

If you’ve got a product or service, you need to be carrying out the steps above